May 16, 2009

Riding the tram

Mostly, the people who ride the tram are commuters, traveling from Main Island to the Dead President Island after a day of work. But for visitors, it’s a fun ride — free if you have a Metro card — that takes you 250 feet above the river, moving alongside the 59th Street Bridge. The trip takes less than five minutes, but for most of it, you are high up in the air, looking at the skyline of the city.

Of course, not everyone thinks it’s a fun ride. Red-haired Niece still shivers when she recalls the ride she took on the tram once with her grandparents. “Dangling from a cable! It was terrifying.”

Usually, we take the tram at dusk, so that we can watch the lights going on all over the city. But since the weather was overcast on Thursday, we decided to take the ride in the afternoon. There were just a few other passengers on the tram, since we weren’t even close to rush hour, and they smiled indulgently as I took photos and exclaimed at the view. People in the Big City Like No Other are used to putting up with excitable visitors.

This post is in response to readers who asked, "How did you take the photo of that bridge? Where were you standing?"

My best friend and I discovered that tram and it was one of our favorite city destinations (we were from that Adjacent State with a Bad, Smelly Reputation) ever. After visiting Serendipity and having Frozen Hot Chocolates, the tram is just a half block away. We did this all throughout our high school years and recently had a FHC/tram reunion tour, 30 yrs later. Beautiful.